Keurig's future depends on this one item

Keurig Green Mountain shares are plummeting after the company reduced its forecast for sales and announced plans for layoffs.

Sales of the brand's core and Keurig 2.0 machines failed to take off as expected. Many consumers already own the brewing machines, leading to speculation that the market is saturated.

This leaves Keurig with one hope: the upcoming "Kold" machine.

But the company won't start selling the single-serve brewer for cold beverages like iced coffee, sodas, and sports drinks, until the 2016 holiday season.

The machine will be sold online this fall, but won't spread to retail stores until a year later.

Investors have been worried about the new product: Brand executives have also told investors they would "give instructions" on how to use the machine, though they claimed it had "one button simplicity," leading to speculation that the design could be clunky.

The new KOLD machine is a single-serve brewer for cold beverages like iced coffee, sodas, sports drinks, and iced tea. It's backed by Coca-Cola and is supposed to compete with Soda Stream.

We've reached out to Keurig representatives for comment and will update if we hear back.

Cold brew coffee is also a growing trend, with Starbucks recently adding it to the menu.

Keurig says the new machine will be a hit because many more people drink cold beverages than hot ones. Sales of the brand's hot brewers have declined for three straight quarters.

The new machine could help Keurig reach new customers, especially children and teens, according to Morgan Stanley.

The brand's last big launch, the Keurig 2.0, was largely seen as a flop.

When Keurig released its 2.0 model, an impressive machine that could brew an entire pot of coffee as well as individual sizes, many experts lauded it as the next George Foreman grill.

But customers soon discovered that the machine only worked with K-Cups sold by Keurig. Pods they had purchased through other vendors wouldn't work.

Amazon reviewers have expressed anger that the company is limiting which K-Cups they can use.

"On principle alone, I hate that they are dictating which coffee I'm using in my machine," one reviewer wrote.